J.J. Abrams on Star Wars: Episode VII and Technology

Daily Mail has a new interview up with J.J. Abrams and the pieces on Star Wars: Episode VII are mysterious but somewhat enlightening.

It’s great to take something like Star Wars and do something new with it. It’s wonderful – I’m having a blast,’ says director Abrams.

It is good to hear Abrams doesn’t appear as daunted as rumors made him seem earlier on. Of course, rumors only travel when they’re sensational. He sounds like he’s enjoying the process so far which is a great thing and will likely give us a fresher, more fun film.

I would imagine Abrams means they’re actively choosing people for roles at this point, not doing the casting process like the calls we saw back a few months ago. The locations bit is interesting. It kind of makes me think we might have a film sort of like Return of the Jedi where it was filmed in England and then filmed in Buttercup Valley. With filming starting in a month, those locations and the right to shoot there will likely need to be locked down here really soon.

Abrams has a finished script, but won’t reveal what exactly is ‘new’.

We’ve known the script is finished. But I am curious to what extent? Will they continue to revise during shooting or is what they have so solid in their minds, they’re done with the script at this point?

‘Technology has given us this amazing ability. We can create things that are photo-real,’ he says.

Finally! We can drop all this business about the movie being a throwback and forsaking CGI. I’m glad. I don’t want a film that looks like it was made in 1986, I want a film that looks like it was made in 2015!

‘You can show and do anything you can imagine. Now that we have got to that place – and Alfonso showed that with Gravity – you’re faced with this question: What are we going to show? What makes it emotional?’

That’s a generally good philosophy to carry. While I’m confident in Abrams, it doesn’t enhance my confidence in anyway because the people that have made films using technology that does not emotionally resonate have asked that same question. But by the same measure, emotional resonance is subjective.

I find the Podrace to be so thrilling because the kid is trying to save a planet and in the process he wins his freedom. He puts his life at risk for others and starts his hero’s journey and all of that is slapped upon my favorite visual effects sequence of all time. But there are detractors. There are those that disagree with me, which is their subjective opinion and their right as long as it is sincere. But my point is, these things work different for different people. But I think Abrams is on the right track and this is going to be an awesome film.